Responsible Printing, Verified
Not every printer who says they’re sustainable can prove it. Complete Colour can. Based in Cheltenham and serving clients across Melbourne and Australia’s east coast, we’ve built environmental credentials over more than a decade — independently certified, publicly verifiable, and embedded in how we work every day.
We don’t treat sustainability as a marketing position. It’s how we source paper, power our presses, manage our waste, and account for the carbon we generate. Here’s what that looks like in practice.
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Renewable Energy
Our Cheltenham facility runs entirely on renewable energy. We installed 728 solar panels on our roof, generating 200kW of on-site power, and supplement with certified GreenPower for any marginal requirements. The result is a print facility powered entirely by clean energy — not offset or traded away, but generated on-site.
For clients who need to report on Scope 3 emissions, choosing Complete Colour means your print run is backed by a verifiable renewable energy claim. We can provide documentation to support your sustainability reporting.
Waste & Water Management
Complete Colour holds WasteWise Gold accreditation through Sustainability Victoria — one of the highest levels of recognition available to Victorian businesses for waste reduction and diversion performance. In practice, 98% of all product and materials we handle is either recycled, reused, or delivered as finished product. Almost nothing goes to landfill.
We also operate 7,000-litre on-site water storage tanks, capturing and reusing water across our facility. Water management is rarely part of a print brief, but it’s part of how we operate.
Responsible Production
Our production processes are designed to minimise environmental impact without compromising the quality our clients depend on. We use process-free plates, which eliminate the chemical processing step required by conventional plate-making. Our presses are ecologically rated and meet strict environmental performance standards. A solvent recirculation system captures and reuses solvents rather than releasing them, and we use vegetable-based inks across our offset press runs to reduce reliance on petroleum-based products.
These aren’t add-ons or optional extras. They’re standard practice on every job we produce.
Responsibly Sourced Paper
Paper and packaging are among the most widely used forest-based products in the world. Sourcing them responsibly is one of the most direct ways a printer can reduce its environmental impact.
Complete Colour holds FSC Chain of Custody certification (FSC-C015144) and PEFC Chain of Custody certification — the two leading international standards for responsible forest management. This means the paper we supply can be traced from certified forests through our production process to your finished product.
If your organisation needs to carry FSC or PEFC labelling on printed materials — or simply wants to ensure its print supply chain is responsibly sourced — we can accommodate that on any job, at any run size.
Our Credentials at a Glance
Complete Colour's environmental credentials are independently verified and renewed on a regular cycle:
FSC Chain of Custody — FSC-C015144
PEFC Chain of Custody
ISO 14001:2015 — Environmental Management System
ISO 9001:2015 — Quality Management System
WasteWise Gold — Sustainability Victoria
These certifications aren't self-reported. They're audited by independent third parties and renewed annually. You can verify our FSC certificate directly on the FSC certificate database using our code FSC-C015144.